Ángel Suquía
(Zaldivia, 1916-San Sebastián, 2006) Spanish Prelate.A priest since 1940, he reached the position of bishop of Almería in 1966, to be transferred to the headquarters of Malaga in 1969.Later he was appointed archbishop of Santiago (1973-1983).After being ordained a cardinal (1985), he was elected president of the Spanish episcopal conference (1987), a position he held until 1993, when he was replaced by Elías Yanes.He was archbishop of Madrid from 1983 to 1994; that last year he was appointed cardinal emeritus.
Ángel Suquía
Descendant of a family of peasants, Ángel Suquía entered at the age of thirteen in the seminary of Vitoria (Álava), where he began studies in theology and humanities.He then went to Germany, where he studied liturgy at the Benedictine monastery of Santa María Laach; however, the start of the Second World War forced him to return to Spain.In 1940 he was ordained a priest, and six years later he went to Rome, where he continued his training and received a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University with a thesis on Holy Mass in the spirituality of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1949).
He returned to Spain in 1951 and was appointed rector of the Vitoria seminary.In 1966 Pope Paul VI appointed him bishop of the diocese of Almería.He remained in the Almeria see until 1969, when he was appointed Bishop of Malaga, at the head of whose diocese he remained until 1973, when he was appointed Archbishop of the Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña) see.
During his ten years as Compostela pontificate, Ángel Suquía became one of the most influential cardinals in the Spanish Church.In 1980 he joined the Spanish Episcopal Conference, an institution in which, little by little, he was consolidating a position of influence between the most conservative sectors and Opus Dei.In 1983, Pope John Paul II appointed him archbishop of Madrid-Alcalá, the seat where he remained until his retirement in 1994; At the same time, the pontiff elevated him to cardinal in the 1985 Consistory.In 1987 he was elected president of the Episcopal Conference, after the withdrawal of Gabino Díaz Merchán.
His election was interpreted as a strengthening of the traditionalist currents of the ecclesial apparatus, at a time when the Spanish curia was in disagreement with the program of educational reforms undertaken by the Ministry of Education and had to address with the Government the question of economic relations between the Church and the State.However, Ángel Suquía knew how to defend the position of the Church avoiding excessive tensions and maintaining certain forms of dialogue.This did not prevent him from expressing continuous official complaints against what he considered excesses stemming from the "secular culture" promoted by the socialist government of Felipe González.
In February 1990 he was confirmed as head of the Episcopal Conference and made a confessional call to stop the government project of legal application on abortion.That same year, it reached an agreement with the leader of the opposition, José María Aznar, president of the Popular Party (PP), to face both the educational reform law (LOGSE) and the measures to regulate the interruption of pregnancy.In 1993 he was replaced as head of the Episcopal Conference by Elías Yanes, and the following year he ceded the archbishopric of Madrid to Rouco Varela.
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